Medan City (Tjong A Fie Mansion & Tip Top Restaurant)

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Tuesday, 13th May 2014

To make our stay worthwhile in Medan, we scheduled a visit to the historic Tjong A Fie Mansion followed by a lunch at the iconic Tip Top Restaurant. Tjong A Fie was probably one of the richest men who ever lived in this city and this was evident from the luxurious mansion he left behind.

The style of his house was quintessentially Peranakan even though one of the rooms was purposely decorated to resemble that of a European Tea Room. The mansion was constructed during the period when Indonesia was under the Dutch Administration. Visits by the European guests could probably be expected from time to time.

For 25,000 rupiahs, our admission came with a local guide that brought us around the place. His laissez fair attitude coupled with the monotonous tone of his well-rehearsed script certainly did not make our visit any interesting. Instead, during our 1 hour linger, there were several photo-taking spots that caught our attention where we were happily snapping away from time to time.

From the mansion, we adjourned for lunch at the nearby Tip Top Restaurant where decorations had remained virtually untouched since the colonial days. This was a place where time had obviously frozen within the capsule since the last century. Service was "Tip Top" for the obvious reasons as we proceeded to order a feast of local favourites for sampling.

Overall, the restaurant did not disappoint us as the food was above average for the price. After lunch, I made a quick detour to the Medan Train Station to take in pictures of the locomotives in actions.

The rest of our afternoon was spent relaxing by the hotel pool while some of us opted for the spa services at our apartment. Heavy rains in the evening impeded us from venturing anywhere further beyond our accommodation for dinner. Considering the prices we paid, this was not a bad dinner decision as we rounded our trip to Medan and Lake Toba on a perfect note.

Until next year!

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